Thin stock planning?

[Mark Kelly]

What is the best way to plane stock under 1/2" (mainly holding it?) Are they worth planing, or would it be better to just use a sander on a pieces under 1/2"?

Thanks!

[Steve Jenkins]

Mark if the thinnest your planer will go is 1/2" all you need to do is put a piece of waxed ply ,mdf,melamine, whatever inside the planer to act as the bed.put a cleat on the bottom of it so it will not slide through. You should be able to go down to 1/4 or less with no problems. When you start getting thinner sometimes the stock will vibrate and cause thin spots and major tearout. At that point you need to attach it with double stick tape to a board that will travel with it through the planer. Steve

OOPS Just noticed which forum this is on. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's ears with the screaming machine:>)

[Manny Hernandez]

Mark,
Just a stop mounted on my work surface works for me. Some shoji screen parts, like the lattice pieces (kumiko) and hipboard, can get down to 1/4" - 3/8". So, I just tack down a small piece of wood that's thinner than what I'm planing. I plane in the direction of the stop. Instead of tacking down the stop you can also trap it in a vise if the vise is mounted in a way that's conducive to this.
I've done this with Japanese planes (pulling) and Western planes (pushing) For the kumiko I tack a pair of runners to the bottom of a Japanese plane to get consistent thickness. In this case the stop has to fit between the runners in order to get a full stroke of the plane.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I plane against one of my bench dogs or against a stop which runs between two rows of dogs. For stock as thin as 1/8" II just take a piece of plywood and lay the stock to be planed on top of it and against either the dog or the stop. Then I just plane toward the stop. If you have a bench with dog holes you might want to check out some of the neat bench accessories Sam Allen has in his book on making workbenches. I've stolen a lot of good ideas from there.

[Tim Sproul]

Not much new to add...

I clamp a thin piece of stock.....you can saw a piece off using bandsaw or tablesaw or handsaw to the end of the bench and plane against that, ala Kirby.

[Chris Padilla]

Steve already took my electron-gobbling planer joke so....

[Robert Tarr]

If I have really thin stuff to plane, I use a piece of plywood on my bench (no dog holes yet...maybe next weekend.) In the 1 foot wide by about 6 feet long piece of plywood, I have a drywall screw that I have used a file to sharpen the head. It works great as a planing stop and it only sticks up, a little less than a 1/4 of an inch. I have clipped the other end of the screw off. Once i have drilled the dog holes in my bench, I plan to use the same set up, with the exception of having a screw in a dog and no plywood.

Hope that helps.

Robert